March 2010 - Dahlia Society of California

FMarch 2010NEXT MEETING: Tuesday, 9 March @ 7:30 @ 9th and Lincoln.PROGRAM - Jim Barrett demonstrates how to build self –watering containers for growingBIG dahlias and Tinnee brings examples of gopher-protection baskets and nastyEFFECTIVE gopher traps. Mike and Martha will delineate their above ground clayand gopher thwarting strategies. Time to get on the volunteer list for the Tuber and Plant sale. Thisrewards DSC members who have consistently come to our meetings, who pitched in at DigOut, whohelped with our Floribunda or in the Dell, and who bring tubers and/or cuttings. Do bring tubers orcuttings for early March sale. Who will concoct yummies to share with your fellow DSCers?ADS FORM-ULAS FOR SUCCESS: :Frank shared Claudia Biggs disc DelightfulDahlias covering the 18 forms recognizedby ADS including many open noveltiesI’d never seen before. (To borrow this orother great discs, check things out with ourlibrarian, Lou L.) Deborah shared DigOuts2009, 2008 and 2007 with us dredging upsome dirty memories. Devorah shared heroutstanding compilation of all the volunteeractivities surrounding dahliaizing. AlexWoo requested help in the public serviceannouncement he is making on our DahliaDell for a class project. Devorah and Gregboth brought lovely tubers for sale at $3each. Bill brought milk cartons so wecould all pot up our newly purchased prizes.Thanks to Elsie for sharing 3 redwoodflats and $2 off admission to the Orchid Show at Ft. Mason coupons. DJagain donated lemons to ourmidst. Ah, Pat’s Florentinesjust dashed down our mouths.Devi’s poppy cake disappeared too fast. Baker Bill’s deliciousMarie Calendar pie got devoured.

VOLUNTEER DAY:SF Parks and Rec threw a party at the Conservatory where each group associated with Golden GatePark could set up a table to interest potential volunteers. With her alluring PowerPoint slide show ona continuous loop, Devorah and Pat enticed potential dahlia helpers. We hope to see some of them atplanting time.HOT DEEP POT ROOTS:DJ reports that his new crate-sized pot rootbeds produce sprouts for cuttings soonerthan his individual 3” containers used to. Hefilled the crate with potting soil, popped it ona bottom heater and sequesterd the wholecaboodle in his greenhouse. Aren’t they areburgeoning nicely!HEART-FELT HAPPINESS:Joann looked radiant consideringall the surgery she’sbeen through. Thrilled withthe flowers from DSC, sheshowed off the flowers fromthe Cornishes and the cardwe all wrote her at the lastmeeting. To surprise herwhen she got home from thehospital, Ron had paintedand recarpeted their home!Keep them in your healthythoughts.

PACIFIC SOUTHWEST DAHLIA CONFERENCE NEWSFABULOUS CONFABULATION:Like a serene swan, the Pacifi c SouthwestDahlia conference at South San FranciscoEmbassy Suite appeared to come off perfectlysmoothly. No one sees the swan’s feetfuriously paddling under the surface, nor didattendees see Tinnee, Erik, Pat and Deborah’smonths of preparation and behind-thescenesscuttling. Attendees bewonderd theirrich goodie bags, donated by Safeway andfi lled with Avril calendars, clip boards, SloatGarden seed packets, and 2011 NationalShow note pads. Roy and Betty grew a cuttingfor each participant. MC, John Morton,tactfully wrangled all the various presenterseven jumping in for Karen to disseminate 3key reports: the Top Twenty Conference Varieties,Winning Cultivars by Class, and 2009PSC Courts of Honor. Of note, Bode wonthe most blues and higher in 2009 followedby Peach Delight, Pam Howden and Shea’sRainbow. Congratulations to Lou P. whose Veca Lucia offi cially ascended to the Hall of Fame last year! WhenRoy reported on the status of the John Stowell Society, he mentioned free meeting space at a generous mortuary.“Great place for flowers,” someone mumbled….. Several items came up during discussion of the NationalShow in 2011 including the possibility that a radio show might broadcast in person from our venue. (Doesanyone have air wave contacts????) Morton confi rmed that the Boeke Purse ($500) awaits the grower whoputs a Boeke introduction on the Court of Honor of a national show. If not won in Chattanooga, the prize goesup to $1000 for our Santa Clara Competition. The Frugal Alchemist, Roy Stier, led the discussion on dahliaculture. Instead of soaking tubers in Clorox, he sprays his tubers with TeraChlor which he feels is gentler onthe emergent eyes and as effective in fungal suppression. He plants a cover crop of bell beans, which resembletiny fava beans. These nitroginate his patch and are easy to dig under. He and Lou L. agree that Bayer’sTree and Shrub drench uses the key ingredient imidacloprid and is less expensive than Bayer’s Two in One orAll in One. Roy sprays his new plants almost as soon as he puts them in the ground to prevent thrip, whichuntreated can stunt growth. With 2 acres of gopher gamboling ground, Bob Papp, President of South CoastDahlia Society, devised cheap gopher cages: 5 gallon pots with 3-6 extra holes in the edges. He only lost oneplant this past year when a wily wretch jumped over the lip of the can and dove downwards to dining pleasure.

MORE PACIFIC SOUTHWEST DAHLIA CONFERENCE NEWSDAHLIA RING CYCLE:Dr. Virginia Walbot’s seminar on AnthocyaninSynthesis galvanized our group.Her 2 acre “laboratory” of dahlias atStanford means she works on themost expensive dahlias in the world:worth about $5,000,000 per dahliahill! While humans are diploid, dahliasare octoploid and have an amazinghabit of jumping chromosomes—whichexplains their penchant for tremendousdiversity. Dr. Walbot cited the fact thatwhile early tubers were probably usedfor food, 300 years of selective breedingfor disease resistance renderedthem increasingly more unpalatable.Dr. Walbot reiterated the 10 steps topredicate color in plants. If anythingbreaks down at any one of these steps,a different color manifests. PH playsa huge role: pigment accumulates inneutral cytoplasm, but only becomescolor when transported into an acidic vacuole. Blue is the newest evolutionary step to which dahlias have notyet evolved. Dahlias also evince phenocritical periods, periods of hours or days when something happens.For example, Jessica’s red tips depend on the type and amount of light hitting the opening petals. Jessicaswho begin to unfurl in early foggy morning light enriched in blue wavelengths loose the red stimulation. If coveredin tinfoil during this critical time, some of the red areas turn white. Passing this phenocritical period, thefl ower will revert back; for example, white petals on Jessica will remain white no matter the quality and quantityof full spectrum light. Dr. Walbot so galvanized our group that they besieged her during Happy Hour and continuedto question her all through the banquet.

STILL MORE PACIFIC SOUTHWEST DAHLIA CONFERENCE NEWSLET THE GAMES BEGIN!Along one side of our meeting room amazing raffle items tempted participants to purchase yet moreraffle tickets from Kathy and Devorah. Dick Meyers crafted 3 of his inimitable tool caddies whichwere filled with gardening implements. Cookbooks galore descended from Shelly’s kitchen. Themesfor stuffed baskets included cooking, stationery, picnic, drinking and Japanese. Ferncliffe Dahliasdonated a $30 gift certificate and Arrowhead donated a $40 one. On the other side of our room silentauction items included several New Introduction tubers from Accent Dahlias and Verrone’s Dahliasand luscious cuttings from the Stiers. (Ken Greenway’s Red Rooster was so contested, people bid upon the back of the sheet!) Jon Dietz donated 16 heirloomtomato plants. Devorah bestowed us a treasure chest fullof jewelry! Pat donated 2 tickets to ACT. All during the dayand halfway through dinner, stealthy bidders ascended thestage to up their prices. Michael Gesundheit announcedearly that he would be buying Avril’s huge framed print ofthe forms and colors to use at all the San Leandro functions.He positively glared at other contenders and promptlyrewrote hisname wheneversomeonedaredchallengehis stakeout.We loved hiszeal. WhenBob Pappwon the rightto the firstBig Tableitem, hesnapped upone of two$50 gift certificatesfrom Corralitos Gardens. The second time Erikdrew lucky Papp, he chose the Gerda’s hand-crochetedafghan to give to Dick Kohlschreiber who remained backin SoCal recovering from an operation. Betty Stier proclaimedto everyone that shewould trade anything Roywon for the leopard-patternhat. To her disappointment,Deborah won the spottedchapeau, but since she’dalready won another hatand she only had one head,Deborah donated it to Ms.Fashionable. Once the officialraffle ended, the swappingand haggling began.Thanks to Pat’s donationof a bottle of wine for everytable, this convivial horsetradingproved quite lively.

HEART-FELT HAPPINESS:Bring your bags or buckets of tubers out from theircool-not-cold dormancy and into a warmer area.They should germinate by our Tuber and Plant sale.I found Bayer’s All in One (3 systemics: fertilizer,insecticide, fungicide) at Costco for $17.89 andpromptly mixed a batch to water the dahlias in mygreenhouse. Thrip seems ubiquitous, so I surppressit early and often before it gets a chance tostunt my plants’ growth. Because early achieverdahlias tend to make spindly stalks, Barry and Marciacame over to help me take cuttings from thesegreenhouse beauties. Typically cuttings shouldroot in 3-4 weeks, but Roy reports that during thiscold spell, his took up to 6 weeks to achieve thesame root development. In December I dug up a fewprize clumps from GG Dahlia Dell placing them in5 gallon pots with plenty of dirt around them. More than 8 weeks later I decanted them, finding beautifuleyes for simple dividing. Try this method when you fear too much rain but don’t have the timeto divide immediately. If you put your clumps in boxes, you can even stack them in the garage untilyou’re ready to process them. Conversely, if you dig up a clump and leave it naked—without dirt orvermiculite or peat moss around it—your clump will shrivel up in a matter of days. I posted a flyer inlocal coffee shops begging them to save me quart-size milk cartons. Before I explained what I neededthem for, Martha Brothers saved me a huge bag, all crushed up to get even more in. So if you try thissolicitation, explain clearly what your purposeis. Last summer I took dahlias in to all theplaces and people who salvaged milk cartonsfor me. Several growers also request coffeegrounds or brew pub barley slag for theircompost piles. Lou L. suggest that now is thetime to spread lime on your dahlia plot if youneed to raise the PH closer to 7. Now is thelast chance to lay down a couple inches ofchicken manure so it has 4-6 weeks to “cooldown.” Greg M. reports that in the one spothe dumped chicken gold last year, his dahliasgrew noticeably lusher. Save tubers andmake cuttings for your benevolent society’sTuber and Plant Sale. Weed Weed Weed!Yours in Dirt,DeborahDahlia Society of California, Inc., San Francisco, CA -- CopyrightedEditor: Deborah DietzPage layout: Mike WillmarthPhoto credits: Guichan and Dietz